Callum Innes installation of recent paintings

photo by Hydia Kosaniuk

Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to announce that a group of recent paintings by Callum Innes is on view in the Modern Art Galleries at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh until June 20, 2010.

For this occasion, Innes chose to exhibit three new paintings that represent a significant departure from his iconic "Exposed Paintings" (see above) alongside two large Monologue paintings. In the new works, the picture plane is split vertically in half. Innes applies two separate colors across the entire surface and then rigorously removes the paint on one side. This process is repeated, leaving one half of the painting covered in layered, complex color whilst the other half of the painting is cleansed as much as possible back to the original gesso. Inevitably, the cleaned half retains a palimpsest of the colors that were absorbed into the gesso; as a result, the artist's palette exists outside of the realm of traditional painting and instead suggests a far more unique chromatic vocabulary. In each painting, a thin, vertical line where the cleansed and painted sections of the composition meet visually vibrates with the remnants of the surface's original layers of paint and separates the two halves of the canvas. This line is not created after the fact, but instead is an integral part of the development of the painting. In Innes's own words, "It wasn't sufficient for me to cover a painting in a single color and then inscribe the field with a line. The development of the line had to be organic, and the best way to achieve that is through erosion."

Innes has emerged as one of the most significant abstract painters of his generation, achieving widespread recognition through major solo and group shows worldwide. He was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Painting in 2002, and the Nat West Prize in 1998. In 1995 Innes was short-listed for the Turner Prize. His recent, critically acclaimed museum exhibition, From Memory, traveled throughout Europe and Australia. Innes's work is included in many major public collections worldwide including: the Tate Gallery, London; the Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland; the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, Texas; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Upcoming in the Fall are exhibitions at the College des Bernardins, Paris, France, and Villa Medici, French Academy, Rome, Italy.